Dinkins Faces Name-Calling In Queens

Mayor David N. Dinkins went to a Queens Democratic club last night and came face to face with rising Jewish anger over his handling of racial strife in Crown Heights.

The Mayor was heckled and called a "Jew hater" as he sought to speak out against bigotry and defend his condemnation of the beating of a black man by Hasidic Jews on Tuesday in Crown Heights.

As Mr. Dinkins left the hall after speaking for a half-hour, he walked to his limousine through a gantlet of demonstrators that seemed to symbolize the city's racial divisions. On one side, black supporters chanted, "Four more years." On the other, Jewish opponents chanted, "Dinkins must go." Responding to Hecklers

The Mayor began his speech to the John F. Kennedy Regular Democratic Club by trying to read a prepared statement defending his actions in Crown Heights. But he was repeatedly interrupted by a handful of people in the audience, several of whom had come from Crown Heights.

"You're a liar! Jew hater!" yelled Joseph Ben Mayer, who said he was an Israeli living in Whitestone, Queens. Across the hall Yehuda Kaplan of Crown Heights shouted: "Jew hater! You're quilty of the murder of Yankel Rosenbaum!"

As Mr. Ben Mayer was evicted from the hall by the police, Mr. Dinkins, clearly angered, shot back: "Let me address the 'Jew hater' bit for a moment. I've heard that several times. Let me tell you who this Jew hater is."

Mr. Dinkins then told of how he had helped found a committee of black Americans to support Israel, and how he prayed at a holocaust memorial in Munich when President Ronald Reagan angered Jews by visiting a German cemetery that included the graves of Nazi soldiers.

"This Jew hater stood alone," Mr. Dinkins said. "No one with me -- alone -- and denounced some of the expressions made by Louis Farrakhan." He was referring to the leader of the nation of Islam, condemned by many people as anti-Semitic.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Dinkins, with the Police Commissioner at his side, had sought to defuse the growing attack on his response to the Crown Heights unrest, coupling an impassioned defense with a detailed police chronology of the beating of the man, 25-year-old Ralph Nimmons.

The chronology, offered by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, gave details from the police discovery of Mr. Nimmons, bloody and beaten behind Lubavitch headquarters about 12:28 A.M. on Tuesday through the arrest of Moshe Katzman, a 24-year-old rabbinical student.

At a news conference yesterday at City Hall, amid criticism from his political rivals and from Jewish groups that had generally supported his handling of the months of strife in the racially divided Brooklyn neighborhood, the Mayor issued a point-by-point defense of his statements.

"This mayor, this man, will not stand by in silence in the face of bigotry," Mr. Dinkins said. Later, he added: "I will continue to speak from my conscience; I will continue to uphold my oath as Mayor," and called on "those who would seek this office and those who support their ambitions" to back his call for peace.

In the weeks since the acquittal of a black teen-ager in the killing of a Hasidic scholar last year, Mr. Dinkins has come under repeated attack from the Hasidim in Crown Heights and some of their Orthodox Jewish supporters. But the Nimmons case has brought a surge of opposition from mainstream Jewish organizations.

In statements and private communications over the last few days, groups like the New York Board of Rabbis and the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith have accused the Mayor of prejudging the case as a bias incident. Lubavitch leaders said that the Hasidic men who beat Mr. Nimmons were responding to a burglary; the police said they have no evidence of a burglary. The police said 20 to 30 Hasidic men were involved in the beating.

The regional division of B'nai B'rith, one of the largest and oldest Jewish philanthropies and mutual-aid organizations, deplored "the seemingly headlong rush to judgment." And in a private letter to the Mayor, the New York Board of Rabbis, until now a staunch backer of Mr. Dinkins, also condemned what it called a "rush to judgment" that would only increase tensions.

The board, largely representing conservative and reform rabbis, had provided significant support to the Mayor just weeks ago when the Lubavitch Hasidim had tried to hold him responsible for a jury's acquittal of a black teen-ager on charges of killinga Hasidic scholar, Yankel Rosenbaum, during racial disturbances in Crown Heights in 1991. Crisis for Mayor

Mr. Dinkins's advisors blamed a growing coalition between the Mayor's opponents in next year's mayoral race and certain high-profile orthodox Jewish figures for the fact that a beating in Crown Heights had escalated into a political crisis.

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Mr. Dinkins won a third of the Jewish vote in 1989, and such support could be crucial to his re-election, making his expected challengers particularly aggressive in courting the Jewish vote. City Council President Andrew J. Stein, a Democratic rival, quickly criticized the Mayor's response to the latest incident. Rudolph W. Giuliani, a likely Republican challenger, criticized Mr. Dinkins's handling of a number of racial incidents during a fund-raising dinner on Wednesday.

Rabbi Hecht called Mr. Jones's charges "the most ridiculous comment that I've heard."

Rabbi Gilbert S. Rosenthal, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, confirmed only that the board had sent a private communication to the Mayor, and refused to discuss its contents.

But Harriet S. Bogard, the New York regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said she thought the Mayor had become isolated. "It's possible he is not hearing or getting advice or feedback from people who are representing the concerns and the anxieties of the Jews in the outer boroughs," she said.

Hasidic leaders charged that Mr. Dinkins had been quick to condemn the beating of Mr. Nimmons as a way of discrediting their criticism of the Mayor's handling of the Crown Heights violence in 1991. Speaking His Mind

But Mr. Dinkins contended yesterday that in the recent Crown Heights incident he had simply followed his usual pattern of speaking out in response to a crime deemed a bias incident by the police.

"I am troubled that most people seem to have forgotten that silence is the most effective and most insidious partner of hate and bigotry," he said, "and that some people seem to believe that condemnation of bias incidents should be applied selectively."

Of those who said he should have awaited more facts in the case before speaking out, the Mayor pointedly referred to Mr. Rosenbaum, whom he visited in Kings County Hospital after he was fatally injured in a stabbing in 1991. "Would these people have had me be silent when some 15 months ago I called Yankel Rosenbaum's murder a lynching before that matter went before a real judge and jury?" he asked.

Mr. Kelly said that the police department had followed standard procedures in deeming the beating a bias incident based on statements by Mr. Nimmons that his attackers had used racial epithets as they beat him. He said a bias incident was defined as any offense "motivated in whole or in part" by "race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation."

He added, "When there is doubt about the designation, preference is given to the victims' perception."

Providing some new details of the inquiry, Mr. Kelly said that Mr. Nimmons had identified Mr. Katzman when he was driving with the police looking for his attackers, and also a second man. But officers brought only Mr. Katzman back to the precinct when faced with a gathering crowd.

He said witnesses provided a partial license plate number of a white car that had been on the scene of the beating. Two brothers traced through the car said they had been in the area because a Hasidic patrol was checking for burglaries. The brothers were released after questioning.

The case also became the subject of a dispute between the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and the police. According to law-enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Mr. Hynes was angered that Chief Kelly had briefed reporters before the prosecutor's office had finished interviewing witnesses and charged Mr. Katzman.

In Crown Heights yesterday, racial and religious slurs where hurled at two women in separate incidents, the police said. But no arrests were made. About noon, a group of four black males yelling religious slurs threw rocks at a 41-year-old Hasidic woman as she left Rayimahuvim Temple, at 1612 Carroll Street, the police said.

About 12:30 P.M., Juanita Caston, 30, a school crossing guard, was at Eastern Parkway and Brooklyn Avenue when she was accosted by a 55-year-old Hasidic man who pushed her while calling her a ""jungle bunny" and a "black bitch." Two other Hasidim chased the man away, Ms. Caston told the police. She said the man did the same thing to her on Oct. 28 and she thought he was mentally unstable.

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A version of this article appears in print on December 4, 1992, on Page B00001 of the National edition with the headline: Dinkins Faces Name-Calling In Queens. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe